catfish21

iTrader: (1)

Been trying to search on here for some answers but can't seem to really find what I'm looking for but I have the 82 4x4 and I have some water dripping out of my tailpipe and I'm woundering if this is normal for an older motor or what I mite just be getting paranoid but just want to know what this is and I'm not loosing coolant

83

Coolant would burn, and make white smoke out your tailpipe. Most likely what you're getting is condensation dripping out of there. I see tons of brand new vehicles with water dripping out of the tailpipe, especially first thing in the morning.

slacker

iTrader: (1)

completly normal .. any and all " internal combustion" engines have condensation , watch the car in front of you at the next stop light ! it'll have condensation pour out the pipe on acceleration .


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ThatGuy1295

Crown Vics are the worst ive seen. Noticed it on dozens of occasions. Ive followed some early in the morning that take off from a stop and dump what looks like several gallons of water out the tail pipe. Not really but lots of water.

83

There seems to be some "conventional wisdom" or maybe more accurately "old wives tale" that water coming out of the tailpipe meant a bad headgasket or something. Maybe at some point with really old vehicles that was true? I don't know. But I remember that I used to think the same thing...something I heard somewhere.

But it's totally normal and nothing to worry about.

83pingpong

Carbon dioxide is only one of the products of combustion. WATER is the other one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combustion


When cold, it spews water from the pipe, because the water vapor (steam) coming out of the cylinder after combustion condenses on the cold exhaust system... After the exhaust warms up, it is steam. The water is not spontaneously appearing... it is half of the products of combustion. The Crown Vic makes a lot because it burns more fuel-but after hot-just steam. Burn anything with oxygen, get water (and CO2). THat is why factory smokestacks that are "scrubbed" still emit steam, and the hundreds of years of burning coal, natural gas, propane, butane, wood, gasoline, oils are injecting energy (heat) and water into the atmosphere. It is the half of global warming that no one talks about. More extreme weather, more energy and water in the atmosphere.

jyou9

Isn't that what a properly functioning catalytic convertor does?? Converts harmful exhaust gases into water vapor??

maachine

no, i dont think so. condensation comes out of anything. my dodge has no catalytic converters and still has water coming out of it.

83pingpong

Follow the combustion link on post 6 above for an explanation.

Reduced carbon sources are: gasoline, wood, coal, propane, butane, methane (natural gas), fuel oil, diesel, kerosene, and lots of other reduced carbon fuels.

Burning is the oxidation of those reduced fuels. OXYGEN is consumed, and the oxygen is turned into WATER.

The hydrogens are taken from the reduced carbon by oxygen to produce H2O (water). The carbon is oxidized to form carbon monoxide (partial oxidation) and carbon dioxide (fully oxidized carbon).

Burning anything makes carbon dioxide and WATER. Water is one of the products of combustion... it is made from the hydrogen (from the reduced carbon) and Oxygen (consumed in the fire).

Catalytic converter just further oxidizes any incompletely oxidized carbon (carbon monoxide) to make carbon dioxide. Carbon monoxide is a poison to us. Carbon dioxide? well most people know that we are spewing megatons of that into the atmosphere, faster than the earth can deal with it.

The Wikipedia link in post 6 shows the fundamental reaction consuming oxygen and producing water and carbon dioxide.

The water is formed by combustion, exits the exhaust as STEAM when the exhaust is hot. When cold, the water spews until the exhaust is hot enough to maintain the water as steam. Did you ever notice that scrubbed exhaust from coal fired plants is STEAM ? You can't see the carbon dioxide, but the water is obvious!